The chef/owner of Los Angeles's Grace and BLD demonstrates how to make two signature dishes: lobster pasta and turbot with trufflesText by Megan O. Steintrager

N eal Fraser is the executive chef and co-owner of two New American restaurants in Los Angeles. At the fine-dining establishment Grace, he turns out creative dishes such as grilled wild boar tenderloin with roasted Brussels sprouts, Yukon gold potato Spaetzle, and violet mustard sauce. The menu at the more casual BLD (short for "Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner") includes dressed-up comfort food such as pasta with homemade chicken sausage and a "Philly-style" shaved ribeye sandwich with peppers, onions, and Provolone.

Fraser began his cooking career at Wolfgang Puck's Eureka Brewery and Restaurant in Los Angeles. He later attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and honed his skills working with top chefs, including Thomas Keller, Joachim Splichal, and Puck again at Spago.

In 1995, Fraser opened his first restaurant, Boxer (now closed). After a stint as the executive chef at Rix, he worked briefly at Jimmy's in Beverly Hills in 1999 until the restaurant unexpectedly closed. In 2003, he opened Grace. The restaurant has been awarded two stars by the Los Angeles Times and three stars by Angeleno, and was named one of L.A.'s 25 Best Restaurants by Los Angeles Magazine. It was called out as a "Hot Table" by Condé Nast Traveler. Fraser opened BLD in 2006, and the restaurant has been popular with the general public and the press.

Praise for Fraser continues from all sectors of the media: For example, he won Iron Chef America in 2006 and was noted in a 2007 New York Times article as one of a group of "up-and-coming chefs whose modest restaurants are single-handedly raising the city's culinary reputation."